1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to metamaterials, methods of fabricating metamaterials, and devices using metamaterials.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
This section introduces aspects that may help facilitate a better understanding of the inventions. Accordingly, the statements of this section are to be read in this light and are not to be understood as admissions about what is prior art or what is not prior art.
Herein, a metamaterial is a three-dimensional (3D) medium whose surface refracts light anomalously such that an incident light ray and a refracted light ray are in the incidence plane and on the same side of the normal to the surface. Some examples of metamaterials have a negative refractive index in a particular frequency range. The negative refractive index causes electromagnetic radiation in the particular frequency range to refract abnormally at surfaces of such media. Other examples of metamaterials have anisotropic media in which the electric permittivity, ε, is negative along a first direction and is positive along an orthogonal second direction. Such anisotropic media can also cause anomalous refraction as defined above.
Designs and/or constructions of metamaterials have been proposed for both microwave wavelengths and infrared wavelengths. Such metamaterials are artificial materials with regular artificial structures.